OPSOPHA&Y. 485 



one colour for another ; while the testimony of a hun- 

 dred noses in regard to an odour would not be found to 

 vary very materially ; but palates differ from each other 

 so widely and so variously, that scarce two agree in every 

 particular: A's delight is B's aversion; and so noto- 

 rious are these diversities, that men, to avoid a perpetual 

 quarrel over their food, are agreed to hold that ' all tastes 

 are respectable,' and ' that no man may find fault with 

 his neighbour's, or, as the Latins say, ' de gustibus non 

 est disputandum.' Men may be constant in purpose and 

 steady in every other desire, but the desires of no one's 

 palate ever continue long the same — they vary from dis- 

 order, from caprice, from fashion ; and are so modified 

 again by age, that suwn cuique — ' one meat for one 

 mouth' — is not the motto of a cook who would keep his 

 place; he must look upon each customer as a sort of 

 Cerberus, who has at least three palates to be appeased, 

 and be acquainted with at least a dozen dishes for each. 

 Nor is this all, for as every individual has his own par- 

 ticular organ which is subject to very many changes, so 

 there are national palates quite as abnormal and capri- 

 cious, which must also be duly attended to by him who 

 professes to cook for the whole world. Thus you see, 

 most worshipful sir, that the supremely important organ 

 of taste (which has been rightly called ovpavof,* heaven, 

 from the heavenly sense it administers) requires profound 

 study, and that no one is fit to enrol himself as a cook 

 who has not studied it in all its physiological vagaries ; 

 and since whUst he Hves, sound or sick, every man's 

 palate is the cook's, he must likewise have traced its 

 changes in fever as in health. Do you follow me, noble 

 sir ? voel<i tov Tinrov ;' ' "AiroXKov, I should hope so ; Ka\ 



* Ovpavos, besides the more common acceptation of the word, 

 means also the palate ; punning upon which, a Greek gourmet, 

 when he scalded his palate, said he had burnt his heaven ! 



